Love, War, and Other Extracurricular Activities
by Rocketship Pandas
Summary: In which Soul Evans learns that the only thing that sucks more than being in love is being in love with two different people. SoulxMaka, Soulxmale!Crona, among others.
1. Chapter 1

_So, years after I had sworn off writing fanfiction for good… I came up with an idea for another one. Go figure. I apologize for the length, but this essentially serves as the prologue and I hate the thought of breaking it up into two entries._

_Also, I apologize in advance for the crack pairing and the fact that I'm totally bullshitting the ages and time differences between events… Except not really. _

_Spoilers: Ahem. Yes. I have watched both the English dub of the anime and read what there is so far of the manga and quite frankly I can't forgive Studio Bones for the atrocity that is anime!BJ or the God-awful "bravery punch", so this story follows the manga. Tl;dr: Spoilers up to chapter 88, but nothing that you haven't already seen in forums or on Wikipedia. _

_Disclaimer: Sit down, ma'am; this may come as a bit of a shock… I don't own Soul Eater. _

**Chapter One: In Which Soul Can't Hold His Liquor and Crona is Much Too Sober to Deal with It**

Things were always so much simpler at the tender age of fifteen.

That is, unless you had the misfortune of being Crona. When your childhood had been filled with your power hungry mother forcing you to commit acts of animal cruelty and thoroughly confusing you about your gender, you never really got the opportunity to have a "tender age". The androgynous boy was not the only one sporting a traumatic past and unfortunate relations- he had no envy whatsoever for Black Star's extinct family of demon ninja psychopaths- but the complete lack of friendly human interaction in his young life made him slightly more scarred than most, and more than a little awkward in public situations. This was never more apparent than after Shibusen had taken the recently orphaned boy under their wing following the resurrection of Asura; he never left his room in the dungeons unless accompanied by Maka or Miss Marie, and once outside he barely spoke two words to anyone and never maintained eye contact. The only people besides his constant chaperones that he could be around without looking ready to wet his pants were Tsubaki, because of her generally calm and kind demeanor, and Soul, simply because he was Maka's best friend and had yet to threaten him with his unusually sharp canines. The calm confidence of both Liz and Death the Kid was unsettling; Patty's exuberance was threatening; Black Star was nothing short of downright terrifying. Weeks passed, and despite everyone putting forth their best efforts (though some of those best efforts were better than others) the situation had hardly improved.

"Poor Crona… I feel like he still isn't really fitting into our group," Tsubaki sighed. She and the gang of "usual miscreants" sat in a small group inside their usual classroom. Stein had yet to show up, so the class was enjoying their temporary freedom from his creepy dissections. The only person absent from the group was Maka, who was down in Crona's miserable excuse for a bedroom trying to persuade him to leave Mr. Corner in favor of normal society, as she did every morning.

"Cut him some slack, he's trying his best," Soul said in his usual bored drawl, leaning back in his chair and kicking his feet up on the desk. "He hasn't exactly had it easy up to now, you know? I'm surprised he even makes it out of his dungeon every day."

"He, he, what's all this crap about 'he'?" Black Star cut in obnoxiously. "For all we know, Crona's a chick!"

There was a collective groan throughout the group.

"I already told you," Soul said for what he was positive was the thousandth time, "I'm pretty damn sure Crona's a dude. I mean seriously, when Maka and I first met him he said, and I quote, 'I have trouble talking to girls.' What kind of chick would say that?"

"A lesbian?"

Soul considered it.

"Black Star, you're an idiot."

"Soul, get your feet off your desk before I am forced to separate them from your body," Stein ordered, wheeling into the classroom on his signature rolling chair seemingly from the shadows and somehow managing to not knock himself over in the process. The silence that washed over the formerly buzzing room at the mere sound of his voice tempted Stein to break into one of his creepy, self-satisfied grins. Oh how he loved being feared.

His eyes scanned the room, mentally taking roll, and the corners of his mouth turned down in a slight frown.

"Where are Maka and Crona? Certainly not skipping class?"

"No Professor, they should be on their way shortly!" Tsubaki answered before muttering under her breath, "It doesn't matter what Crona's gender is, Black Star, and I would like to ask you not to pester him about it. The last thing we want to do is make him feel even more uncomfortable."

"The only people that would be feeling uncomfortable are you guys when you figure out that the great Black Star is, as usual, correct!" the aforementioned Great Black Star scoffed, not bothering to keep his voice down. "I'm telling you, God doesn't bless us men with sweet asses like the one Crona has!"

Tsubaki's face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson. "Black Star, please!"

"Class, or more specifically, _Black Star, _I would advise you to keep down the chatter, or I can promise you that someone in this room will be leaving with a serious injury." Stein's cold glare rested on the blue-haired assassin, who in turn ignored it completely, before he returned to drawing his diagrams on the chalkboard.

An evil grin spread across Black Star's face as he leaned over and tapped Soul on the shoulder. "You wanna know what I think?"

"Not particularly."

"I bet Crona's totally lesbo for Maka, and that they're shacking up right. _Now._"

"Hmm."

Black Star's lower lip jutted forward in a rather unattractive pout. "What, no jealousy? No burning rage or heartbroken sobbing and humanity-cursing?"

"Not really, Black Star. I'm not in love with Maka or her A-cup breasts, so you can cut it out with the whole trying to make me furiously jealous thing."

"Hmph… I think you're in _denial_!"

Stein, finally having heard enough of Black Star's gratingly loud voice, threw a book with professional accuracy, and Soul smiled and enjoyed the peaceful silence that followed.

"So," Kid said nonchalantly, as if the boy sitting right behind him hadn't just been brained by _The Sadist's Guide to Lower Intestines_, "not to change the subject or anything, but back to Crona. I was wondering if having a small get together tonight would help Crona become more accustomed to being around us. We have yet to invite him to a party, and it could just be the eight of us so he shouldn't be too overwhelmed."

Patty clapped her hands excitedly. "A party?"

"Nothing too extreme, of course, though no doubt Black Star will steal some liquor and do his best to turn the entire affair into a drunken mess. Still, it could help the kid get over his anxiety to be around us in a more relaxed environment…" Kid folded his arms over his chest and looked at everyone else for approval. "What do you guys think?"

Everyone that was still conscious exchanged looks, Patty looking dangerously close to passing out at the thought of finally doing something entertaining after school. Soul tried not to show it, but the idea of a party was highly appealing to him as well; all of the shit that had gone down during the Asura incident, on top of his normal daily struggles of being regularly molested by the house cat and having to secretly deal with what was very likely a case of multiple personalities, would reduce anyone to needing a relaxing beer or two. Or ten.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Soul said with a shrug. "We just have to run it by Maka, she'll have to convince Crona to come with her to your house instead of running straight to that creepy corner of his …And guys…" Soul's face darkened menacingly. "For God's sake, unless you want a repeat of the last time we tried to have a party, do NOT tell Maka about the booze beforehand!"

xXx

Much to Maka's dismay, Crona was already panicking.

"I really don't know if I can deal with this, look at his house, it's so big and scary and it's probably full of people I don't know and they're all gonna stare at me like I'm some kinda monster!"

Maka sighed and put an arm around Crona's shoulders, partly for reassurance and comfort and partly to push the frozen boy forward towards the polished wooden doors of the young Shinigami's house. "I already told you, Crona, you already know everyone here, they're all friends of mine and you've talked to all of them every single day since you came to Shibusen. Nobody's going to stare at you, everyone just wants to be your friend and help you feel better about being around us! …And Kid's house is only big because he's too rich for his own good."

Crona's trembling was subdued by Maka's arm around him, but his anxiety wasn't so easily settled. "I don't know, I've never been to a party before, what am I even supposed to do? Dance? I can't dance! And what if I'm not wearing clothes that are nice enough and I look out of place?" With the hand that wasn't giving himself his customary half-hug he tugged nervously at the hem of his crisp white dress shirt. Somehow, despite the fact that the boy's selection of outfits was fairly limited, he managed to spend close to an hour agonizing over what to wear, searching for something that he deemed nice enough to wear to Kid's party and something that would cover up the majority of his frail body without attracting as much unwelcome attention as his standard black robe. In the end, he had left his room wearing all white, from his freshly ironed shirt to his impressively clean shoes, for once feeling half-satisfied with his appearance before his nerves decided to kick in.

"Aw, come on. Of all the things you could worry about you focus on your clothes? You look fine! I can promise you that the only person there that will be dressed nicer than you is Kid. I mean jeez, look at what I'm wearing!" She gestured at her simple tank top and skirt. As Crona looked her over he was forced to fight back a blush.

"I-I think you look… really nice."

Her eyes momentarily met his, and her lips turned up into a small smile that made Crona's heart nearly skip a beat. "Thanks. That's really-"

"Maka, Crona! About freakin' time! Get in, get in, you _have_ to see this!"

Crona let out a high-pitched squeak and quickly hid behind Maka, while she bit back the urge to roll her eyes. Of course, right when Maka had succeeded in getting Crona past the front doorstep, Patty had to do what she was specifically told not to do and terrify Chrona with her sudden, noisy appearance. She quickly grabbed onto Crona's wrist to keep him from escaping before trudging toward the madly giggling girl.

"Keep it down a bit, Patty, you're scaring Crona and if he runs away then this party is pointless… What's going on?"

The blonde nearly tripped over her own feet as another wave of hysterics hit her and Crona, sure that the girl had gone mad, clutched Maka's shoulders so tightly that they began to grow sore. "Hahahaha! It's so funny, you have to see it! Soul, Black Star, and Big Sis are sooooooo drunk!"

Maka froze. There was an audible crack as her free hand curled into a tight fist. "They're _what?"_

"See, Black Star brought all this booze, and he and Soul figured Maka was gonna be a big party pooper and take it away so they tried to drink it all before you got here and then Big Sis took some drinks too, and Soul told us not to tell you—Woops!" She clapped a hand over her mouth before falling victim to another fit of giggles.

Maka seemed to be frozen for a second, and then she stormed up the long set stairs, momentarily forgetting her death grip on Crona's wrist and dragging him along behind her. "Where are those _idiots,_ Patty?"

"Kid's bedroom! Wait for me, I wanna see Maka bash their heads in!"

Maka didn't bother slowing down and upon reaching Kid's bedroom attempted to kick the door off its hinges, revealing one of the most bizarre scenes Crona had ever witnessed. The debris of what had obviously been a fast but intense beer drinking session were scattered across the otherwise spotless floor; Liz was sitting on the edge of the bed sobbing into her hands, while Soul and Black Star sat on either side of her and patted her shoulders consolingly. Both boys also looked close to tears. Tsubaki and Kid, meanwhile, stood to the side and observed the scene with mixed expressions of amusement and concern for their friends' mental health.

"You guys don't understand, I-I _had _a little fish once… His name was Speedy and I loved him soooo much…" Liz's wails grew louder in volume and were broken up by small hiccups. Black Star bit his lip and valiantly held back a sob of his own as he gave her a comforting hug.

Soul sniffed and wiped a hand across his red, watering eyes. "It's okay Liz; we'll never eat fish again."

Patty appeared in the doorway moments after Maka and Crona's dramatic appearance, and crossed her arms over her chest with an expression of disapproval on her face. "Hmph, Big Sis is such a liar. She never had a fish."

A blood vessel in Maka's temple appeared to snap. Furious footsteps closed the distance between the bedroom door and the bed, and a moment later Soul's head was in excruciating pain.

"Ow! The _fuck_…?" Soul caught sight of Maka, standing over him with anger radiating from her every pore, and his look of pain and dismay immediately changed to one of pure joy. "Maka! You're here!"

Maka's furious scowl deepened and her hand reconnected with Soul's injured head.

"Ow! Jeez Maka! What did I do?"

"You know damn well what you did, you idiot! How dare you try to get everyone drunk before Crona and I get here? How are we supposed to make Crona feel more comfortable around us if half of you are acting like lunatics?"

Her accusations took a moment to register in Soul's foggy mind, but when they did his eyes grew wide. "Wait… Me? Nu-uh! It was all Black Star, he just had to bring the booze and then I was all like…" He paused and thought for a second. "Well I just started drinking it, and then we were talking about Pixar movies and Liz got all-"

"Don't say it! I can't take the pain of his loss again!" Liz cried, covering her ears. At that moment Maka decided that she had had quite enough.

"Liz, pull yourself together, you never even had a fish! And Soul, you can quit with the lies, Patty told me that you knew about Black Star bringing the beer and you were trying to keep it a secret from me."

Soul's eyes darkened and he threw an innocently whistling Patty the most menacing glare he could muster. "Traitor."

The accusation had barely left his lips when he felt himself being lifted by the collar of his jacket and dragged across the floor, and with a shout of "Out!" Maka had thrown him face-first out into the hallway. Soul quickly scrambled into a sitting position and pointed angrily at Black Star and Liz, still safely seated on the bed.

"Hey! What about them? They're drunk too!"

"This is all your fault, so sit out here until you sober up or pass out!" was the response he received before having the door slammed in his face.

The other occupants of the room stared at the girl fearfully; she stood facing the door, clenching her fists and breathing heavily, and looked more than ready to take out her wrath on the next person who dared to breathe in her presence. However, when she turned around, her face was brightened by a friendly smile that was almost as terrifying as the scowl it had replaced.

"Alright! How about some movies?"

It was at that moment that Crona realized, to his horror, that the girl he was falling for was, in her own way, almost as mad and violent as his dearly departed mother and the professor responsible for her death.

xXx

"Hey! Where are you off to?"

Crona paused and looked guiltily over his shoulder, caught halfway through his attempted scramble for the bedroom door. The concerned expression on Maka's face made his stomach twist uncomfortably. The last thing he wanted to do was upset the one person that he knew cared for him, but the stress of being in a noisy, crowded environment, even one filled with friends, had finally gotten under his skin. Liz and Black Star, still riding off the waves of drunkenness, constantly roared obnoxious bits of commentary at the movie they were watching, with Maka occasionally inflicting her own brand of punishment when she could no longer understand what the actors were saying. These things did absolutely nothing for Crona's nerves.

He desperately needed a breath of fresh air.

Or, better yet, to just run to his room, grab his pillow, and hide in his corner for the rest of his life.

"Oh, um, don't worry Maka…" Crona gave a nervous laugh as he slowly continued to make his way for the door. "I just need to… um… use the restroom… Yeah! I-I'll do that and be right back, okay?"

"Um, okay!" Maka flashed him a quick smile and turned her attention back to the TV screen. Crona returned the smile half-heatedly before practically dashing out of the room. The moment the door was closed behind him he breathed a sigh of relief.

"… Thank God… I don't think I could have dealt with that much longer… even though Maka was there." Crona pressed his palms against his closed eyes, rubbing them until he saw stars.

"Jeez, Crona, stop being such a pussy!" Ragnarok took the opportunity to morph out of Crona's back and take up his favorite pastime: bullying the crap out of his meister. "You gonna bail or what? Not that I give a rat's ass, there aren't any tasty eats here anyway."

Crona's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. "I'm not going to _bail_… I'm just gonna… sit out here for a bit… Away from everyone… By myself… Alone…"

"I highly doubt that, dumbass."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Hey! Crona!"

Oh, right. He had forgotten about Soul. Crona resisted the urge to stomp his foot in frustration.

"H-hi Soul…"

"Come 'ere, come 'ere, I gotta tell you something _'portant._" Soul waved his hand and patted the floor in front of him, which Crona guessed was supposed to be inviting. The boy was so drunk that Crona was surprised that he had managed to stay conscious this entire time. Despite this and Crona's growing urge to run away from the mansion and embrace the freedom of solitude, he plucked up the manners to hear Soul out and take a seat in front of him.

"Um… Okay, what is it?"

Soul's face immediately turned deathly serious, and Crona decided that being polite had been a bad idea. "You don't… _like_ Maka, do you?"

Crona's face flushed red, and had Soul been sober he would have immediately spotted his guilt.

"Oh, uh, no! Not at all! I only like her, you know, as a friend!"

He raised a shaking hand to tightly squeeze his arm as Soul continued to give him a suspicious glare. Then, much to his relief, Soul leaned back with a wide grin on his face.

"Kay, good. 'cause I totally love her."

Oh. _Oh. _Crona felt his heart drop down to his feet. From his perch atop Crona's head, Ragnarok let out a gleeful snicker.

"…That's… nice…"

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone, 'cause that would be _super_ uncool if she found out. Like she might…" He took a second to think. "Beat me up or something, probably."

Crona merely nodded in reply and kept his gaze strictly fixed on his shoes. How stupid had he been, buying all of Soul's comments about how he found Maka bossy and unattractive? Had he really fooled himself into thinking that he was the only one interested in her? Now… now he couldn't ever confess his feelings without making a rival out of the boy in front of him, and even if he did, who had the better chance of winning her heart? The weird kid with the bad haircut, or the cool, attractive boy who also had the advantage of being her weapon partner and living in the same apartment as her?

Damn. It just wasn't _fair._

"Crona? Heloooooo?" Soul waved a hand in front of his eyes and laughed. "Dude, you're spaced out! Wha's wrong with you, huh?"

"Oh! N-nothing!" Crona forced a small laugh and mentally beat himself over the head, much like he was sure Ragnarok would do to him later for being such an obvious wimp. He briefly allowed his gaze to move up from his footwear and saw Soul giving him a slightly lopsided smile. He also noticed that the boy was a hell of a lot closer than he remembered him being.

"Hey Crona…" His smile widened, revealing a sliver of his sharp teeth. "You're kinda cute, you know that?"

Crona's eyes widened as he felt all of the blood in his body rush to his face. "C-cute? Me? I don't, I mean, I'm not…"

Yes, Soul was _definitely_ closer than he had been moments ago. Much, much too close. Crona could smell the alcohol on his breath and feel its warmth brushing across his face.

"Oh yeah! Um…"

"S-Soul?"

"Uh… are you a dude or a chick?"

Crona needed to run. He attempted to push himself to his feet or at the very least scoot away from Soul to a more comfortable distance, but his fear worked against him and held him frozen in place.

"Um… I'm… I'm…" Crona swallowed and fought to control the quaver in his voice. "I-I'm a boy…"

The weapon's drunken smile fell to resemble something more along the lines of a confused and thoughtful frown. Crona's breath escalated to the quick, short gasps of someone who was about to suffer from a panic attack, and he hoped fervently that whatever it was that made Soul's smile fade wouldn't lead the much stronger boy to inflict pain upon him.

"… Huh. Well…" Soul hesitated for a brief moment before muttering "Fuck, _whatever_" and pressing his lips to Crona's.

Crona breathed in sharply in shock; he probably would have let out a small gasp if that hadn't meant opening his mouth, which was something he was definitely _not_ willing to do in this situation. The other boy's lips were warm and surprisingly soft as they brushed against his own… Crona vaguely realized that Soul was wearing some kind of chapstick, which he found rather odd, but a moment later he decided that he actually didn't mind.

Right then, the realization struck him.

_Oh, oh God, this is my first kiss, but it's not with Maka, it's with her __**partner**__, with her drunk, male partner who's also in love with her, oh God this is all kinds of wrong, Maka's going to kill me, Soul probably will too when he's sober, and I-I-I… like it?_

Although it seemed to have lasted an eternity in Crona's mind, the kiss was over almost the moment after it had begun. With a low groan Soul broke the contact between them and pitched forward, leaning his entire weight against Crona's smaller body and resting his head in the crook where Crona's neck met his shoulders. Crona's eyes flew open in a panic-_wait, when had they closed?-_and when he recognized the situation he was placed in, his arms lunged out and shoved the other boy off of him.

"No! No more! I shouldn't have even let you… let you… um, do _that_…"

"Oi, shut up you moron, you're making a huge pathetic scene and the bastard can't hear you anyway."

Crona blinked and went quiet at Ragnarok's irritated command before looking down at Soul. The demon weapon was sprawled across the floor on his side, eyes closed contently, the faintest traces of a blush still staining his cheeks as drool escaped from his happily smiling mouth.

"He…"

"Passed out, and about freakin' time too."

Crona's eyes continued to rest on Soul's peaceful face, and he _really_ wished that he could control the prickling redness that still insisted on covering his skin from the neck up. His fingers found his bottom lip, still slick from Soul's chapstick, and traced the outline of it absently.

"Ragnarok, why didn't you stop him from kissing me?"

"Aw, why would I do that?" The demon sword snickered and reached down to painfully pinch one of Crona's crimson cheeks. "It's much more fun to watch my weakling meister discover his homosexuality in the most awkward way possible!"

"M-my _what-? _Ow! Jeez, lay off already, that hurts!"

Crona managed to fend off his attacker long enough for a moment's peace, although Ragnarok continued to giggle in a manner that Crona thought to be more than a little perverted. The boy pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped himself up in his arms as tight as he could manage. His slate grey eyes continued to stay locked on Soul's sleeping face as he drew his lower lip into his mouth and bit down hard.

"… I can't tell Maka about this."

xXx

The memory faded as it came to a close, and the empty darkness of reality returned. Crona continued to keep his eyes tightly shut in the hope that the memory would return, or that another one could take its place. His mind remained a blank slate, however, and in time Crona was keeping his eyes closed merely to deny his surroundings. Maybe, if the things he had done and the place where he had trapped himself were out of his sight for long enough, they would disappear, becoming just as real as the resurfacing memories swimming through his head.

His fingers dug into the soaked fabric covering his knees as he struggled to recall what had happened after the party. He vaguely remembered Soul arriving to school the next day with a wicked hangover, some impressive bruises courtesy of Maka's rage, and… Crona felt his heart sink. Soul hadn't remembered the kiss.

Oh well, that was to be expected. If he had been drunk enough to even think that Crona was attractive, let alone kiss him, then he had definitely been drunk enough to have his memories of that moment wiped clean from his mind.

The swordsman's body began to slowly rock back and forth, and his fingers dug even deeper into his knees. A small amount of the liquid soaked into his robes seeped out onto his already bloodstained hands.

He hadn't kissed back. God, just how stupid was he? It didn't matter that Soul had been intoxicated or that he was a boy and definitely _not_ who Crona had intended to take his first kiss. Soul had cared about him as a friend, at the very least, during his stay at Shibusen, and that moment was most likely going to be the only time in Crona's miserable life that anyone would bother to show even the slightest romantic interest in him. He knew that he would never be kissed again. And what had he done? Absolutely _nothing._

What an idiot.

"Cronaaaaaa." Ragnarok slumped dejectedly over the top of Crona's head. "I'm huuungry. Get up and fucking get us something to eat already!"

"No." Crona shook his head wildly, irritating Ragnarok further. How long had it been since he had eaten? Five days? Six days? All he knew was that long ago, even the angry rumbling in his stomach had ceased. "I-I'm just gonna sit here with my eyes closed until everything goes away and I'm back with my friends and everything is happy and n-_normal_ again."

"…Huh." There was a short pause as Ragnarok looked around the room. "…Nope, everything still looks the same out here! The walls are still covered in blood and guts-"

"No! Shut up! I don't want to know I don't want to know!" Crona's hands smacked over his ears and the speed of his rocking began to increase. Ragnarok decided that he'd had quite enough of Crona's moping and that hitting his meister upside the head was a fine idea.

"Ow!"

"Get a hold of yourself, Crona! What are you gonna do, sit here and think about Mr. Metrosexual and his ugly girlfriend until we starve to death? Okay, so you butchered your mom, big deal. She was a bitch anyway. Can't we at least eat that pasta that's still sitting there? It can't be _too_ rotten yet."

"No… I… I'm not hungry… I don't wanna open my eyes… I don't wanna see…" Crona's voice trailed off into a small series of whimpers. Ragnarok groaned dejectedly and flopped to the side as he tried to ignore the dull pain in his stomach.

_BANG. BANG. BANG._

Crona's body went still at the sound, and his breath caught in his throat. His hands slowly uncovered his ears as he tried to focus on the ruckus that seemed to be right outside the front door.

"Hey Crona, I think someone's at the door. Should we let them in?"

"No, of course not! Are you crazy?"

"Hmph. Rude houseguest."

_BANG. BANG. CRASH._

"Oh, hey, they got in anyway. Helloooooo!"

"Shut up, Ragnarok! Go away" he hissed before realizing that telling his own blood to go away was a pretty stupid thing to do. Run. He had to run. But how was he supposed to run with his eyes closed? Oh, a wall! He just had to find a wall and follow it until he got out of the room, and then it would be safe to open his eyes and make a break for it. His hands scrabbled about desperately, feeling for a wall, but instead made contact with something disturbingly wet and squishy. Crona recoiled quickly with a yell of fright.

"Ah! W-what did I touch?"

"Trust me, you don't wanna know. Fuck, being hungry is making me tired. I'm just gonna go back inside you and let you deal with the assholes at the door, that's what you get for not feeding me."

"Ragnarok, wait-!"

The noises of the intruders were closer. Crona went deathly still, his shallow breathing sharp in his throat and his racing heartbeat roaring in his ears. Footsteps. Down the hall, right outside the dining room door, then a pause. Whispered voices, too low for Crona to identify. Another short pause. His eyes clenched tightly shut as they began to well up with tears. _Please go away oh God please go away._

The creaking of a door swinging open.

"…Oh, _hell._"

"Oh my God, Crona!"

Those voices… no, it couldn't be. They couldn't have found him. Not after all this time.

A second later there were hands on his shoulders, trying to pull him into an embrace. "Crona! Oh thank God you're alright!"

"D-don't touch me…" Crona attempted to squirm away from her touch. He couldn't stand it, this kind of compassion, not after everything he had done. And besides… "I-I'm covered in…"

"Shh, it's okay, we're going to get you out of here. You're safe with us."

Crona couldn't decide whether he wanted to laugh or cry at the impossibility of that statement. The decision was made for him as tears squeezed out of his eyes and began to roll down his cheeks.

"Maka, we need to get out of here…" There were more footsteps and Crona felt the presence of the second person beside him, a presence that to his shame caused his cheeks to grow slightly warm. "This place looks like a crime scene. If they catch up to us and see this mess it's not going to help his case any…"

It was then that Crona felt the trembling in Maka's hands. Cold dread coursed down his spine. "T-they? Who are they? What's going on? Why are you here? How did you even know where I was?"

A pause followed his questions that was much too long for comfort. He felt the hands around his shoulders move up to gently hold either side of his face.

"Crona, look at me."

The swordsman gasped sharply and attempted to shake his head. "No, I can't! I can't open my eyes! I can't see-"

"Look at me, _please._ There's nothing to be scared of. We're not going to let anyone hurt you, okay? _Please._"

He hesitated. He tried to obey his instincts, truly he did, but in the end he couldn't resist. Not her, not him, not the ridiculous thought that everything would be alright, and although he knew he would never cease to regret it, his eyes slowly cracked open and took in the face of the girl in front of him.

The first thing he saw was the green of her eyes, filled with fear and determination. Then the hand of her weapon partner resting on her shoulder- _no too friendly they can't be together no no I don't want to see that-_ and his eyes slid to the side and saw the blood. The body. The carnage. The smile. _She was still smiling as I chopped her to pieces._

_So much blood. So much pretty red blood. Not like my blood. My blood is black. _

_Oh God oh God no stop please no stop no no no no no_

Something in Crona's mind that had been barely clinging to his sanity snapped. Out of his throat was forced a small choking sound, which slowly evolved into thin, trembling laughter.

"Aha… ahahahaha…" Maka recoiled as Crona's face broke into a twisted smile. One of his hands moved up to clench in his choppy hair; the gaze of his bulging eyes never left the carcass lying beside them. "She's dead, Medusa's dead, ahahahaha, and I killed her yes I did, I stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and got her pretty red blood all over the walls and Medusa will be so angry at the mess but oh wait she's dead I killed her-"

"Crona?" Maka grabbed the boy's shoulders and shook him fiercely. "Crona! Snap out of it, please! Damn it, what did that woman do to you to make you like this again? Soul, we have to get him out of here, if they catch up and see him in this state they will- will…"

The manic laughter immediately ceased. Crona's eyes slowly slid over to focus on Maka and Soul.

"They're going to kill me, aren't they?"

The surprise in Maka's eyes at his question was enough of an answer. Soul tightened his grip on Maka's shoulder and bared his teeth in a grimace. "Not if we can help it. You just need to calm the hell down so we can get you out of here, and we're gonna try our hardest to change Shinigami-sama's decision."

The smile on Crona's face stretched into a grin, and another nervous laugh escaped through his teeth. "But… I _want_ to die."

Maka gasped sharply and Soul's grimace became a dangerous snarl. The former bit back tears of anger and frustration and resumed her earlier action of trying to shake sanity into the swordsman. "Don't say that! Don't you dare say that! We went through so much trouble to track you down and get here before any of the troops Shinigami-sama sent out to search for you got here and we've broken nearly every single rule at Shibusen just by trying to help you! We are _not_ letting you die!"

"Get your hands off of me!" he screamed, lashing out and roughly shoving Maka away. Soul started forward angrily, but stopped and stared in horror as multiple arms forced their way out of Crona's back, each one clutching a sword in its hand.

Maka rose to her feet and, trembling violently, took Soul's hand in hers.

"W-what _is _that? What the hell did that monster do to him?"

Crona let out a low whine and his eyes became unfocused, as if he were seeing horrors that were invisible to anyone but himself. The volume and pitch of his voice quickly increased along with the speed of his rambling. "Do? What did she do to me? Oh, she did many many things and I screamed and screamed but no one came to save me oh no, but that's okay now because I'm going to die and I can forget all the needles she stuck in me, all the times she cut me open and starved me and hurt me over and over and over and I can forget betraying Maka and Miss Marie even though they loved me and not kissing Soul back even though I should have and hurting Professor Stein and please please please kill me I want to die and I want you to kill me and if you won't I'll have to kill you and wait for someone else to kill me instead-"

Crona stiffened. There was someone behind him, someone that he hadn't sensed beforehand. Before he could turn around or defend himself a fist slammed into the back of his head, blasting him with a powerful soul wavelength and knocking him senseless. His attacker stepped out of the shadows and stood over the unconscious body, rubbing his hand over his bruising knuckles.

"I don't know about you guys," Black Star muttered, "but I couldn't stand to watch that anymore."

Maka let out a sob and ran forward, falling to her knees beside the boy and holding his frail body to her chest. The tears that she had managed to hold back the duration of Crona's mental breakdown were finally freed as she hugged him tightly, not caring that the blood covering him and the floor around him was staining her clothing. Soul stood back and watched in uncomfortable silence; the boy had never been a master at the art of comforting, and in this particular scenario there really was nothing that could be said. He had the distinct feeling that a hug and a "It's okay Maka, our friend's only batshit insane" would do absolutely nothing to make things any better. Black Star, who was even less talented at being sympathetic and thus found himself in a similar situation, instead turned to Soul with a curious frown.

"Did he say that you kissed him?"

_AN: The next chapters won't be nearly as long as this one, mostly because my sanity can't handle it. Not that I'm expecting this to be read anyway. Because really, who ships SoCro? Certainly not me. That'd be silly._


	2. Chapter 2

_Dialogue, dialogue… more dialogue… Is this chapter nothing but dialogue? Great Scott, I think it is! Damn. Sorry about that._

_This chapter is brought to you by beef jerky and Cherry Coke, which is apparently the majority of what I consume when hard at work on a story. Thank God for my supernatural metabolism. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater. No, I don't think it would be cool if I did. _

**Chapter Two: In Which Nothing Happens but Soul May or May Not be a Rapist**

Four months of intensive care in the psych ward and a whole lot of bargaining and pleading with Shinigami-sama later, Crona was still alive (much to his chagrin) and finally deemed fit for human interaction once again.

Predictably Maka, upon hearing the news that Crona could now receive visitors, set out at once for the hospital where the swordsman was being confined, and Soul was obliged to accompany her. He considered the trip to be a bit of a pain since it meant pulling out his pride and joy (or, as Maka called it, "just a stupid motorbike") and hauling both of their asses halfway across town, but the happiness and excitement in Maka's eyes was more than worth the trouble. His meister had been in a constant state of depression since the day they had found Crona and dragged his unconscious body back to Death City, and it was nice to see her smile again.

Besides, he thought grimly, he had business of his own with the boy that had to be dealt with.

"Crona?" The nurse at the front desk searched through her patient listings as Maka tapped her foot impatiently. "Ah, yes, he's on the fourth floor in room 409. However, he's only aloud one visitor at a time. Security reasons. We can't risk him becoming overwhelmed right now."

"That won't be a problem," Maka quickly assured her before grabbing Soul's hand and practically dragging him up the flight of stairs. Soul hissed in pain as the girl turned a sharp corner and his arm was pulled taut at a highly uncomfortable angle. Sometimes, Soul found himself wishing that Maka could calm down her impulsive energy and take things at a slower pace; in any case, it would save him many dislocated shoulders in the future.

Then again, being cool and collected had always been his forte, and though he would never admit it to anyone but himself he didn't want Maka any way other than as the violent spaz she was.

When they reached the fourth floor Maka began to speed down the long hallway, checking room numbers as she went. Soul snorted and pointed out that she was wasting her time, and it was obvious that the room being guarded by two men that had a disturbingly high resemblance to gorillas was the one that belonged to Crona. His deductive reasoning was rewarded with a smack.

"H-hello," Maka greeted the scowling guards, catching her breath as Soul glared at her indignantly and rubbed his cheek. "Is it alright if I go in to visit Crona?"

"Negative," the guard in the left grunted while his partner deepened his scowl in agreement. "The Demon Sword already has a visitor. Please wait your turn."

Maka's eyes widened. "Already has a visitor? But who-?"

Almost as if waiting for the question to be asked, the door swung open and Stein stepped out into the hallway. Maka's mouth fell open in disbelief and Stein froze at the sight of her and Soul, leaving them at a rather awkward standoff. After a moment of confused silence their professor gave them an unreadable frown and quickly departed.

Maka turned to Soul, her brow furrowed, and gestured to Stein's retreating back. Soul responded with a shrug. Ah, the wonders of silent communication.

"Uh… I think I'm gonna go ahead and see Crona." Maka smiled and gave Soul's hand a soft squeeze before releasing it. "Be right back."

Soul watched his meister disappear behind the door and then turned to the guards. They seemed to have taken up the pastime of testing out their evil glares on him. Soul sighed. Fantastic.

He retreated to the opposite wall and planted himself on the floor, briefly glancing upward to see if the guards were still trying to slaughter him with their eyes. They were. Soul dug through his pockets until he found his iPod, and felt an immediate sense of relief as he shoved in his headphones and plugged into the world of music.

_Much better, _he thought, closing his eyes in contentment, and as the first notes of Beethoven's _Moonlight Sonata _began to caress his eardrums he silently mulled over what exactly he would say to Crona when his turn to visit him arrived.

The kiss that he couldn't remember had constantly been in the forefront of his mind, nagging at him and slowly eating away at his mental well being. Sometimes he found himself deep in thought for days on end, which by itself was a disturbing activity for the youngest death scythe to partake in, wondering how it could have happened and why, out of absolutely everyone in the city, he had kissed _Crona._ It didn't even make sense_._ And if they had heard Crona correctly he hadn't even kissed Soul back, which meant that it had been completely instigated by Soul himself. _Crap _that bothered him to no end. He had, perhaps unwisely, confided in Black Star about these thoughts and the assassin, being the great best friend that he was, advised Soul to stop being such a girl and demanded to know why he was so "obsessed". Soul was tight-lipped about that; it was too embarrassing, and in any case Black Star would just laugh in his face and label him a prude.

Well, if he was honest with himself, maybe he was a bit of a prude. Despite everyone's assumptions about his character, Soul had been rather proud of the fact that he had yet to kiss anyone. Well, besides that one incident with Black Star about a year back- no, no, they had both mutually agreed that said incident had never occurred and would be erased from history from that point on. That didn't count. _Anyways._ The point was that even though he was part of a minority that continued to slowly shrink as he got older, Soul had secretly taken pride in the fact that while everyone else around him succumbed to the pressures of temptation and raging hormones he, Soul Evans, had the self control to reach the age of sixteen a complete virgin despite the fact that he lived with a sexpot that constantly shoved her naked breasts in his general direction.

But no, he had been wrong. At some point during Crona's stay at Shibusen he had kissed the boy, and to top it off he had absolutely no clue when or how it happened. Pride shattered. Confidence whisked away and replaced with anxiety and doubt, emotions that were as far from cool as it got and that definitely had no place crawling around his head.

In short, this mess was _killing _him.

There was a tap on his shoulder, and when it went unheeded Soul felt his earphones being tugged out of his ears. He opened his eyes and gave Maka a disapproving frown.

"I was enjoying that song."

"You can finish enjoying it later. It's your turn to see Crona."

Soul slowly pushed himself to his feet and stared at the door with more than a little reluctance. He _really_ did not want to do this.

"Go on." Maka gave him a small, encouraging push forward. "And hey, he seems pretty sad… well, more than usual I mean… so don't you dare be mean to him."

"Maka, when am I ever anything other than impeccably charming?"

Maka's eye twitched. "Don't make me hit you."

"Again," Soul added onto her threat under his breath, and with much internal groaning of displeasure he pushed through the door and stepped into hell.

The room was completely barren of warmth and personality, with everything from the wallpaper to the sheets on the hospital bed colored the same mournful shade of grey. Crona was sitting upright and staring lifelessly out the window, where Soul could see that the sky was now obscured by cheerless clouds even though he could have sworn it was pleasant and sunny during the drive over. As Soul shut the door behind him Crona's attention was turned onto him, and Maka hadn't been lying, the boy looked like he was wallowing in the pits of misery. Soul opened his mouth to say a greeting but the words became caught in his throat, leaving him instead to stand there and look stupid. The room was filled with an awkward silence.

This was fucking depressing.

Soul cleared his throat and slowly lowered himself into the chair beside Crona's bed. "…Hey Crona." Good, he'd found his words again. That was an improvement.

"…Hi." The swordsman was avoiding eye contact, and Soul had the distinct feeling that Crona knew exactly what he had come to ask him about and was just as unwilling to discuss it.

"...You feeling alright?" Soul asked in an effort to ease the tension. Crona stared at his hands in his lap and nodded.

"Professor Stein came in… and told me that Shinigami-sama is giving me one more chance." Crona's voice was so soft that Soul had to strain to hear him, and his tone made it clear that Crona considered himself far from deserving it. "I'll be going back to Shibusen in about a week."

Soul felt a bit uneasy at that. He wasn't sure how good of an idea that was, sending Crona back to Shibusen so soon. The stories of the crimes committed by Medusa's son, the dreaded Demon Swordsman, had spread like wildfire throughout the school and more than a few people were out for his blood (or, more accurately, his soul). He imagined that he, Maka, and the rest of their friends had quite a job of looking after the boy ahead of them.

"…You can go ahead and ask about it, you know."

Damn, so the time had come already. Crona was biting his lip nervously, still observing his hands as if noticing for the first time that there were strange fingered things attached to his wrists.

"Oh… well…" Great, now Soul was the one trying to avoid eye contact. So not cool. "Honestly… I just want to know what happened. I mean, no offense or anything, but I just can't remember doing anything like that."

Crona smiled with a touch of bitterness. "That's because you were drunk."

If Soul could have sunk through the floor and disappeared forever, right then would have been a good time to do so.

"Wait… I was _drunk?_" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah… It was a few weeks after I became a student at Shibusen and you guys had invited me to a party at Kid's house…"

Oh _shit._ Soul knew exactly what party he was talking about. His head fell into his hands.

"…You were pretty drunk when I got there and Maka kicked you out of the room when she found out… and then I wasn't feeling so good so I went out there too and you said you needed to tell me something important…"

_Oh my God, I sound like a rapist._

"…And then you… w-well… yeah," Crona finished lamely. He wrung his hands as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "That's all that happened."

Deep, calming breaths. A slow count to ten. …Nope, Soul still felt like crap. Here he had been for the past four months feeling sorry for himself for losing his first (second? No, first) kiss, when in reality he'd practically cornered the unsuspecting Crona and forced it on him. He'd never felt more guilty in his life. "Shit… I'm sorry, Crona. I'm so, so sorry."

"...Please don't apologize…"

Soul peered up from his hands to find Crona's grey eyes firmly fixed onto his. He had the saddest eyes Soul had ever seen, and he found himself unable to break the gaze.

"…L-look, I don't care if it was just because you were drunk and it didn't mean anything. It was the only kiss I'm ever going to get and the last thing I want to remember it as is a mistake." Crona's voice began to tremble and he quickly looked away again, his pink blush quickly escalating to a vibrant crimson.

Well. When he put it that way Soul felt like even more of an asshole. He found himself at a complete loss for words, and thus another painful silence came to pass between them.

Crona let out a shaky breath and seemed to tense up, and Soul mentally prepared himself for what was sure to be another unpleasant revelation. "Hey, Soul?"

"Hmm."

"There's… s-something I lied to you about."

"Oh?" The death scythe kept up a decent poker face, but on the inside he was desperately praying to any god out there that Crona wouldn't tell him that he had done something more than kiss him. The anxiety increased tenfold as Crona squirmed in discomfort and wrapped his arms around himself protectively.

"Before you… um… kissed me…" _Please don't say I touched you please don't say I touched you_ "…You asked me if I… _liked_… Maka."

That wasn't any better. Soul made a mental note to invent a time machine the moment he got home. Past-him needed a good punch in the face.

"And I lied. I told you that I didn't like her… and I did."

His groundbreaking statement was met with a resounding nothing. Crona waited with baited breath until he could no longer handle the silence.

"Y-you don't… hate me, do you?"

There was a short pause, and then Soul burst into genuine laughter, causing Crona to nearly jump through the ceiling. The swordsman stared in shock at the white haired boy, feeling more than a little confused and hurt. He'd just confessed to what he considered to be one of his worst offenses… and Soul was _laughing_ at him?

"Oh wow… ahaha… I'm sorry." Soul held up a hand as he gathered his composure. "I'm not laughing at you, honest. But seriously, that would have to be the dumbest reason for someone to hate another person."

Crona's eyes widened. "Really? …But I thought-" He stopped, not wanting to say it out loud, but Soul got the gist of his unfinished question and waved his hand dismissively.

"Tch. No, Maka and I are definitely _not_ dating. Not even close."

Crona stared at him blankly, mentally debating whether or not he should inform Soul that he had also confessed to him his love for his meister. His mouth began to open, and then shut. It was probably better to keep that tidbit of information to himself.

"…I see…"

"I mean… she's cool and all, but I can't see us as being anything more than friends, you know? I'm not too big on the whole romance thing." Soul readjusted his position on his seat; why did the visitor's chair have to be so damn uncomfortable? "And even if we _were_ dating for some bizarre reason, I've never been much of the jealous type. I'm way too cool for that," he couldn't resist adding, flashing Crona a stunning sharp-toothed grin. He'd never considered Crona to be the kind of person to roll his eyes at someone, but the swordsman looked sorely tempted to. At least the mood seemed to have finally lightened up, and Soul could have sworn that a bit of the sadness in Crona's eyes had disappeared.

"So… we're still friends?"

"Yeah, of course, so chill out already. Seriously, I was able to get over the fact that you tried to kill Maka and nearly sliced me in half in the process. The fact that you like my meister is nothing in comparison."

"…_Liked._"

Soul's grin fell. He searched for an intelligent response and eventually settled on "Huh?"

"I… _liked_ Maka." Well, so much for the sadness being gone. Crona looked more depressed than ever. "Not anymore. I-I did some really bad things… I hurt a lot of people… I _killed_ a lot of people… And after all that she still came to find me and bargained with Shinigami-sama for my life… I-I don't deserve it." Soul felt a small surge of panic at the tears that began to form in Crona's eyes; he sincerely hoped that the boy wasn't about to cry in front of him. He never knew what to do when someone was crying, besides throwing together a load of meaningless bull that both people were supposed to pretend was comforting. "I don't deserve someone like that… And she shouldn't have to deal with a monster like me having those kinds of feelings for her… A-and when she came in to visit me just now I couldn't even look at her and the only thing I felt was guilty… Whatever I felt before… It's gone. Just gone."

"…Feelings like that don't just go away. It's not that easy, not unless you didn't really like her to begin with." Soul rested his cheek against his hand and watched the boy in front of him, looking for a reaction. Crona's words had sent a distinctly unsettling feeling into the pit of his stomach, and although he couldn't pin down the reason why he knew that he didn't like it at all. Crona blinked in confusion, allowing a few tears to escape and carve trails down his cheeks.

"I-I don't know… I don't _care_…" He sniffed and quickly wiped his tears on the back of his hand. "I-I can't deal with feelings."

_Ah, that's what it is, _Soul realized. They were the words of someone that had completely given up hope and any sense of self-worth.

Soul rose from his seat and the swordsman froze, his eyes filling with terror at the sudden movement. The death scythe raised his hand, hesitated, and let it fall on Crona's head to ruffle his choppy hair.

"Hey… stop being so hard on yourself. It's not cool at all."

Crona stared, not quite comprehending the fact that Soul was actually willingly, _soberly_ touching him and that his idea of comforting him was by informing him that he wasn't cool.

To make things even weirder, the small lift in his spirits let him know that it actually seemed to work.

A small moment of silence passed, and Soul realized that his hand was still resting on top of Crona's head. He quickly whipped it away as though he'd been burned.

"Hey, um… I hope you don't mind, but I should probably get going… Maka's probably wondering if I'm doing something terrible to you in here… or something."

"Wondering if you're what?"

"Ah, nothing. See you at school, okay?" Soul gave the boy a small smile and made his way to the door, more than ready to escape from the increasingly awkward situation he'd gotten himself thrown into.

"I… I'm sorry."

_Damn it._

Soul turned around and gave him a quizzical look. "What for?"

"For… everything… For all the bad stuff I did… I didn't want to hurt anybody. I really didn't."

Crona was staring at him pleadingly, silently begging him to believe him. Soul sighed and ran a hand through his messy white hair.

"Crona, anyone with a working brain can see that you didn't want to do the things you did. Medusa had you brainwashed; that's all there is to it. You don't have to apologize for anything that bitch made you do."

Soul turned once again toward the door, but as his hand made contact with the handle he paused.

"…By the way… You're not a monster. So stop calling yourself that."

And with that dramatic parting statement, Soul walked through the door before Crona could say anything else to hold him back.

"Hey Soul!" Maka said cheerfully; she had taken up Soul's former position on the floor and was immersed in a book that was far too thick for anyone with sanity. She leapt to her feet, closing her book and shoving it under her arm, and made her way over to her weapon partner. "You took forever in there, how did it go?"

"To sum it up, I'm a huge asshole and now I'm depressed as hell." He sighed for the umpteenth time in the space of an hour and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "Let's go get lunch."

"What? That doesn't tell me anything!" She poked him in irritation as they made their way down the hallway. "Did you find out what happened with-?"

"Yeah, I did. Which reminds me, don't ever let me drink again."

Maka snorted. "I don't think I've ever _let_ you, you big dummy," she grumbled, to which Soul responded with the most innocent looking grin he could muster.

"Wait a second…" Understanding hit her like a bullet train. "You were _drunk_ when you kissed Crona? _Seriously?_"

"Please don't remind me… or hit me… I feel bad enough as it is."

Maka rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop a small smile from forming on her lips. "Idiot."

"Thanks."

"You weren't mean to him or anything, were you?"

"I already told you… impeccably charming, etcetera, etcetera…" They had finally exited the dreary hospital and Soul blinked at the bright surge of sunlight. Wait, the sky was clear again?

"What the fuck? I could have sworn…" Soul shook his head. "Never mind. Hey, there's a place close to here that I've heard is pretty good, since we're on this side of town we might as well try it out. You okay with that?"

"Sure! What's it called?"

"Can't remember, it's some bakery with a French-ass name… Hopefully we'll know it when we see it."

"Wow. Great plan…"

Ignoring the motorbike in favor of walking, the two made their way down the paved sidewalk, Maka keeping her eyes out for a bakery with a French-ass name and Soul keeping his eyes on anything other than the girl beside him. Not that that plan ever worked out very well. Soul constantly found his eyes wandering in her direction before catching himself and looking away with a small blush.

If he had to get drunk off his ass and kiss someone, why couldn't he have kissed _her?_

The hand that wasn't clutching her book was hanging limply by her side. Hmm. Temptations, temptations. For once Soul decided to give in and slowly reached across to slip his hand into hers. Maka made no comment, which he thanked the gods for, and contented herself with simply intertwining her fingers with his.

He hadn't been lying when he had told Crona that he preferred his relationship with Maka at the "just friends" level, but it wasn't because of his lack of interest in romance. The embarrassing truth was that all he wanted, all he needed to be sent into a state of perfect bliss, was to hold her hand.

xXx

Eventually, staring at the door that Soul had left through became unbearably dull. Crona flopped flat onto the bed and instead turned his gaze toward the ceiling. It was the same grey as the door. He tried making patterns out of the bumps on the ceiling, and it took him a minute or two to realize that there were none.

This really wasn't much better.

Well, back to staring out the window it was, then.

Crona couldn't decide how he felt about Maka and Soul's visit. Sure, the fact that they even went out of their way to see him made him feel happy, he supposed… And yet, that dull pain he felt in his heart wouldn't go away. Maka had been so nice to him… Too nice… How was she able to treat him with such kindness when he was nothing but a-

_You're not a monster. So stop calling yourself that._

Crona lifted his right hand and gave it a long, hard look. Slowly, he placed it on top of his head and gently ruffled his own hair. His lips turned up in the tiniest of smiles.

"Thanks, Soul."

With a soft sigh he rolled over onto his side, his eyes becoming unfocused as he lost himself in thought. He couldn't figure out exactly why, but for some reason Soul's visit had left him feeling a lot better than Maka's had. It wasn't like the boy was anywhere near as kind as his meister, and he didn't exactly mince words or water them down in an attempt to be more comforting… but then again, maybe that was why he left Crona much more satisfied. The boy told it like it was, nothing more and nothing less… and that made it so much easier to believe him when he told him he wasn't a monster.

_Why…_ Crona reached up and felt his face in confusion. _Why am I blushing?_

He pondered this for a while, and decided to change his train of thought. He didn't particularly care for the conclusions his mind was jumping to.

_So… I'll be going back to Shibusen in a week… Back to that dungeon of a room, yippee… And back to… everything else…_

"_It's going to be hard, Crona," Stein had warned him, his intense gaze boring holes into Crona's skull. Crona couldn't possibly deal with meeting such a gaze, and kept his eyes fixed on the sky outside his window._

"_Everyone there knows about the things that you've done, and many people are unhappy that your name's been taken off Shinigami-sama's list. They're not going to make it easy for you."_

"_I know." His voice was lifeless. He couldn't care less._

"_You're going to be ridiculed. You're going to be hated. And you need to be prepared for the worst, because things could very easily turn ugly."_

"_Are you sure I really deserve this second chance, Professor?" Although his voice was in monotone the sarcasm in his words was not lost on the scientist. Stein chose to ignore it and hold off on the punishment that he would normally deal out to adolescent smartasses._

"_Everyone deserves a second chance, Crona. Even me. Even you." The professor dug his hand into the pocket of his lab coat, and it reappeared moments later clutching a medicine bottle._

"_Here. Take this." He dropped the bottle in Crona's lap. The boy threw it a swift, uninterested glance._

"_What is it?"_

"_A medicine I've worked my ass off developing, so you better take it or I will be very displeased. It's designed to give you a bit more control over the black blood inside of you."_

_That managed to get Crona's attention. He slowly picked up the bottle and peered through the see-through plastic._

"_I… I'll be normal?"_

_Stein gave him a small frown. "Unfortunately, no. We were only able to get our hands on a small portion of Medusa's black blood research, and I'm afraid the rest of it died along with her. This is the best I could do with the materials I was given. It doesn't negate the effects of the blood; you still have Ragnarok, you're still impervious to most physical attacks, and if you're not careful you can still fall into madness. But at the very least, this should help your stability become more… well… stable."_

_Crona stared at the medicine and clutched it tightly to his chest._

"…_Thank you, Professor."_

"_Don't mention it." Stein rose out of his seat and cranked the screw driven through his head. Crona watched in silent fascination; he had never quite gotten used to the professor's strange habit. _

"_Oh yes, one more thing… No matter how bad things get, don't forget that you have friends there that would risk everything for you, as they've already demonstrated many times. I'm sure you know who I'm referring to."_

Crona's arms wrapped around his pillow. It was hard and uncomfortable, as was to be expected from hospital pillows, but nevertheless Crona pulled it tightly to his chest.

"Yeah," he whispered to no one in particular, and he found himself smiling again. "I won't forget."

_AN: Sorry, La Madeleine. I love you. Also, I am not an avid reader of Soul Eater fanfiction so I have no idea if Soul liking Moonlight Sonata is a fandom stereotype, but it seems like something Mr. Artsy Music Man would enjoy so I went for it, dammit. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Did I say my chapters weren't going to be long after the first one? OOPS. _

_This chapter took way too fucking long to write (and rewrite and rewrite and re…), but it's four in the morning so I give up. I blame Black Star and the fact that Soul seems to lose all his brain cells whenever they're thrown together. They're two of my favorite characters… but they're idiots._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater. I wish I owned the characters, though. Except for Gopher. He can go fuck himself. _

**Chapter Three: In Which Soul has a Hand Fetish and Crona is a Damsel(ish) in Distress**

"Goooood afternoon, Shibusen! It's a fantastic day to be me!"

Soul shielded his eyes with his hand as he looked up in the direction of the voice. The sun was just beginning to rise over the towering rooftop of the school, casting the front end into shadow and illuminating the silhouette of the boy perched atop it. The pose the figure struck was one of a victorious warrior, say, one that considered himself close to surpassing God himself. The death scythe rolled his eyes. His idiotic best friend probably thought he looked pretty damn impressive.

"Get down from there, Black Star," Soul called up to him. "You look like a moron!"

There was a faint cry of outrage and Soul's lips twitched into a satisfied smirk. The assassin leapt from the roof, performed a flashy midair back flip for no discernable reason, and landed nimbly on his feet beside his friend. Said friend then found himself being forcefully poked in the chest and on the receiving end of an accusing glare.

"I think the only moron here is you, you… _moron!_ We've been waiting out here for over an hour now and Crona still isn't here, what's the big deal?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Soul brushed off the other boy and made his way over to the nearest pillar. He casually leaned his back against it and his hands took their usual positions inside his pockets. "He's probably just running a little late, that's all. I know you're bored, I am too, but we can't do anything except wait out here unless we want Screwhead out for our heads. So sit down and shut up."

Black Star made a huge show of flopping onto the ground and groaning with his face in his hands, which Soul ignored. The death scythe stared sightlessly into the distance, wondering if he should just take a nap while he waited. It was either that or listening to Black Star's noisy attempts to entertain himself.

Soul had known that looking after the swordsman was to become a full time job for him, but he hadn't expected the responsibility to fall on his shoulders right off the bat. Shinigami-sama and his advisors had decided that in order to avoid a big scene, Crona would arrive at the school while the rest of the students were occupied in their classes and he would not make any public appearances until the next day. Before class had begun, Stein had pulled both Soul and Black Star to the side and appointed them Honorary Crona Bodyguards, a job that required them to defend the boy if anyone spotted him and attempted to start trouble and to watch him and make sure he didn't do anything stupid, such as trying to escape again or freaking out and stabbing somebody.

Needless to say, this was a position that neither of the boys were terribly pleased with.

Soul really had no problems with Crona and had already come to terms with the fact that he would have to keep at least one eye on him at all times, but he still considered their relationship to be awkward at best (he hadn't quite forgiven himself for, as Black Star put it, "molesting his mouth"), and he had rather been counting on Maka being there to help him out. If anyone truly understood Crona and knew best how to deal with him it was his meister, and he didn't really have anything against the extra time he would be spending with her either. Black Star had apparently been thinking something along the same lines, minus the last bit, and was quick to voice his dissatisfaction.

"Why'd you have to pin this on us, huh? Why can't Maka look after Crona? He's always afraid that I'm gonna attack him and he's probably scared that Soul's gonna molest him-" (At that comment Soul's eye twitched dangerously) "-but he goes fucking nuts for Maka so why can't she-?"

"_Language_, Black Star," Stein warned, a menacing undertone slipping into his otherwise calm voice. "I would have gladly chosen Maka to guard Crona, and I'm sure she herself would volunteer for the job in a heartbeat. However, this job requires you to skip class, and we want to draw as little suspicion to his arrival as possible, so…"

The two boys gave him blank stares. Stein sighed in annoyance.

"To put it simply, no one is going to think twice if you two are absent from class. That's why you got picked."

There was a short pause. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Black Star muttered indignantly.

"It means," Soul said, narrowing his eyes at his friend, "that this is all your fault. Tch, shoulda known tagging along to your fights would bite me in the ass someday-"

"_Language_, Soul." Stein pulled a particularly nasty looking knife out of his coat pocket, and any further arguments and swear words the two boys had were immediately silenced.

_And now here we are. Fucking fantastic._

"Damn it, if he doesn't hurry up all of the classes are gonna be let out for lunch and we'd have been bored out here for no reason," Black Star complained. Soul lifted his wrist to check his watch before remembering that he wasn't wearing one.

"It can't be _that_ late," Soul said, shoving his hand back into its respective pocket and hoping that Black Star hadn't caught his moment of stupidity. "Besides, if someone sees Crona and tries something you can use it as an excuse to kick some ass."

Black Star seemed to consider this, and an eager grin spread across his face. "Ha, you're right! I've been itching for a good fight! Although anyone that bullies someone like Crona probably wouldn't be a worthy opponent anyway."

Soul couldn't help but agree. Crona's acts of bloodshed had accumulated a lot of hatred for the boy among the citizens of Death City who knew anything about current events, but anyone that could take one look into the boy's sad, I'm-a-puppy-that-just-got-hit-by-a-truck eyes and still try to cause him more misery would have to be as big of a heartless asshole as, well, Ragnarok. Soul thought it was perfectly obvious that when Crona was mentally stable he would never willingly harm another person… But maybe that was only because he'd known him before this whole mess had begun. Most people hadn't exactly had that chance.

"Oh!" Out of the corner of his eye Soul saw Black Star leap to his feet. "There he is! About time! …Wait a second, who are those guys with him? And what the hell is he _wearing?_"

Soul fixed his eyes on the approaching group to see what Black Star was referring to. Crona was flanked by two suited men who Soul assumed to be flunkies of Shinigami-sama based on the insignia worn on their jackets. Both of them wore expressions of distaste directed at the boy between them; it was clear that neither of them had volunteered to be his chaperones. Crona probably looked extremely uncomfortable at being surrounded by such animosity but the death scythe couldn't tell; he wore an oversized black sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and over his face, paired with a simple pair of loose-fitting black pants and shoes. The sudden change of attire was a bit jarring as Soul hadn't ever imagined Crona wearing anything that wasn't painfully old-fashioned or feminine, but he realized that his old robe must have been in ruins, what with all the mother-killing and extra-arm-sprouting he had done. Someone must have gone out and bought Crona a new outfit, one designed to hide his face and attract as little attention as possible.

As the three figures got closer Soul lazily raised a hand in greeting. "Hey Crona."

Crona peered up at him from beneath his hood. Scarlet eyes briefly met with grey before both boys quickly looked away in different directions.

_Yep. Still a bit awkward._

"Hey there Crona! Long time no see!" Black Star shoved past one of the suited guards and threw an arm over Crona's shoulders. The swordsman's face became a mask of pure terror, which Black Star completely misread. "Hey, don't worry, I'm not holding a grudge just because you tried to kill me that one time! I got to knock you out, so we're even!"

The expression Crona wore made it clear to (almost) everyone present that being knocked out by him again was exactly what he was afraid of.

"So, you two are the guardians for the Demon Swordsman?" the man Black Star had pushed aside demanded, failing to hide both the spite in his voice as he spoke Crona's title and his disbelief that he was handing him over to two teenage boys. Black Star stopped mid-laugh and fixed the man who had spoken with a glare that would have melted ice.

"What, you think we're less competent than your sorry asses? You have any idea who we _are?_" His hand cracked into a fist, which he raised before him threateningly. "Soul over there is only a death scythe, but _I'm_ the man that's going to surpass God! Don't you ever forget that! And by the way, last time I checked this guy had a name and it wasn't something stupid like _Demon Swordsman_."

The two guards, obviously knowing nothing about Black Star's legendary temper, looked ready to scoff at his nonsense. Soul would have gladly kicked back and watched his friend unleash his fury on them, but Stein would probably kill them for causing a commotion and in the end he preferred breathing to entertainment. With a sigh he grabbed Black Star by the arm and began the difficult task of dragging him toward the school and away from a fight.

"Come on, let's just go. These douchebags aren't worth our trouble."

"What? No way! Let me at 'em! I'll fucking kick their asses for looking down on me like that! You told me I could fight someone, damn it!" Black Star struggled to free himself from Soul's iron grip, even after the small group had managed to pass through the doors of the school and the suited men were out of sight. Crona, who was still trapped by Black Star's other arm, found himself being dragged and jerked around with the assassin's every movement, and he looked desperately at Soul for help.

"Hey, let go of Crona already will you? You're either gonna break his neck or give him a heart attack."

"What are you- oh! Oops!" Black Star hurriedly removed his arm and Crona stumbled away to a safe distance, both arms wrapped around himself protectively. "Sorry about that!"

"I-It's okay," Crona mumbled quietly. However, as the group continued on their way through the school Soul noticed that Crona kept himself as far away from Black Star as the hallway would allow.

"So… you staying in the same room as before?" Soul asked after a few minutes of tense silence. He glanced at Crona just in time to see his hooded head give a small nod. It suddenly occurred to Soul that in this new outfit Crona had an unsettling resemblance to Medusa. He hoped that no one else would make the same connection and silently berated the person who had picked out his clothing for being an idiot.

"Well… that sucks. They couldn't give you anything better than that depressing dump?"

Crona shrugged his shoulders slightly but otherwise gave no response.

_Damn, he's being even more quiet than usual. Guess he must be really nervous about being back here or something. Or Black Star just scared the crap out of him. _Soul frowned but didn't push the one-sided conversation any further; Crona could talk whenever he felt ready to.

It was at that moment that fate decided to give them the middle finger and everything blew up in their face.

Just as the small entourage was passing by one of the classrooms the door swung open and a boy stepped out, whistling off-tune and clutching a restroom pass in his hand. He glanced curiously in their direction and stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes fixed on Crona.

"Oi! Move along!" Black Star made shooing motions with his hands. "Nothing to see here!"

The boy tilted his head peer under Crona's large hood and his eyes slowly began to widen in shock. Soul reached over and roughly shoved Crona's head down, but it was too late. The boy dashed back inside of the classroom and slammed the door behind him.

"…Well, shit." Soul swore.

Although muffled by the door the noise level in the classroom was definitely escalating at an alarming rate, and the distinct sounds of thundering footsteps could be heard coming their way. Soul had to come up with a brilliant escape plan, and fast… which, to be honest, he couldn't have done under normal circumstances, so he went with the next best option available to him.

"Black Star! Distract them!" He gave his friend a hearty shove toward the door, grabbed Crona's wrist, and took off down the hallway with the terrified swordsman in tow.

As he ran he thought he heard a faint cry of "_YOU FUCKING BASTARD!_" but there wasn't time to slow down and shout back an equally rude reply. He forced his legs to move as fast as they possibly could, thanking the gods that all of the recent fighting with Arachnophobia and Noah had kept him in shape, and kept a firm hold on Crona's wrist; he knew that the swordsman's stamina was nowhere near his own, and before too long he could hear the boy gasping for breath.

"Stop… Stop…" Crona tugged on Soul's hand weakly. "C-can't run anymore…"

Soul gritted his teeth in frustration but continued to push onward. It was only when the tile on the floor began to change into the dull grey stone of the dungeons that he allowed them to stop, Crona practically collapsing to the ground the second Soul released his wrist. Soul crouched down beside him, catching his breath, and pulled back Crona's hood to make sure he was still alive.

"You okay? You look ready to pass out."

"Y-yeah… just… not so good… at running…" Crona pushed himself unsteadily into a more dignified sitting position, a hand clutched over his racing heartbeat. A wide smirk spread across Soul's face.

"Heh, yeah, I noticed. Sorry for not stopping, but I really didn't want those people catching up to us. It sounded like they were gearing up for battle or something."

The blood drained from Crona's face, and the arms that he had wrapped around himself began to noticeably tremble. Soul let out a sigh and gave Crona a small pat on the back, almost knocking the boy over again.

"Hey, don't worry about them, okay? Me 'n' Maka and everyone else are gonna be looking out for you, we're not gonna let anything bad happen. I can promise you that the worst thing that will happen is Black Star getting jealous that you get a bigger reaction out of people than he does."

A small, shaky laugh escaped from Crona's lips. "That is pretty scary," he pointed out, and Soul's smirk widened into a grin. The death scythe pushed himself to his feet and stretched an open hand out to Crona.

"Come on, we can't sit out here all day."

Crona's cheeks flushed a pale shade of pink, but he took Soul's hand regardless and allowed the other boy to pull him to his feet. The swordsman's hand was cold and completely smooth, without any traces of the calluses or roughness that normally came with fighting with a sword. Soul didn't know what he'd been expecting to feel, but something comparable to the hand of a porcelain doll definitely hadn't been on the list.

"…Soul…" Crona's blush continued to darken. "…Let go of my hand…"

Soul blinked and immediately dropped Crona's hand, his own face beginning to grow warm.

_What the hell was that, idiot? Way to look like a completely uncool creep._

"Um…" Crona cast his eyes downward, taking a sudden interest in the stones on the floor. "W-we should keep going…"

"…Yeah, let's do that…"

The remainder of the short trip to Crona's room was spent in uncomfortable silence, Crona lost in whatever thoughts were going through his head and Soul wondering why that damn blush refused to completely leave his face. Well, not exactly _wondering_, because he knew what the source of the problem was; Crona's hands reminded him a whole lot of Maka's with their near-flawless smoothness and the perfect way they fit into his. The only real contrast between them was the difference in their body temperatures, but Soul rather enjoyed the feel of cooler skin against his own. His hands itched to slip into Crona's again…

Soul shook his head violently, clearing those thoughts from his mind. _No. Stop it.__Don't even think about it. _

When they reached the door of the room Crona seemed to hesitate. The swordsman slowly reached out and pushed the door open, and it swung open with an ominous creak. He took a few tentative steps forward into the room and stopped again, his eyes surveying the contents of the room. It was exactly the way he had left it, although it had gathered a considerable amount of dust and cobwebs during his absence. The bed still sat against the wall, looking cold and unfriendly due to lack of use, and against the opposite wall stood the small desk that Crona had never cared to use during his original stay. Crona took a deep, steadying breath and made his way toward his infamous "Mr. Corner", but rather than curl up in it like Soul was so accustomed to seeing he just stood there, staring at the shadowy stone. His fingertips traced the cracks in the wall in front of him before his hand dropped limply to his side, and he breathed a small, sad sigh.

"Hello again, Mr. Corner."

Soul leaned against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest, and watched him in silence. He wasn't sure what to say, or if he should even say anything at all. Crona seemed to have forgotten about his presence in the room completely.

The swordsman backed away from the corner and made his way to the bed instead. He sat himself down on the hard mattress and brought his knees up to his chest, and his eyes were fixed on the small barred window set so high up on the wall that Soul wondered why the builders had even bothered putting bars in it in the first place.

"… I don't know if I like being back here," Crona said softly, almost to himself. "Too many… bad memories…"

The overwhelming sadness that Soul recognized from his hospital visit was back in his eyes. The death scythe could hardly stand it.

"Hey, if you ever needed to, you know, get out of this dump for a bit…" Soul gestured around the cell with an expression of distaste. "You could always crash at me 'n' Maka's place. Maka would love having you around."

Crona's head snapped toward him so fast that there was an audible crack. "R-really?" he asked as he massaged his sore neck, sounding like he didn't dare believe it. "You guys… would really be okay with that?"

"No, Crona, I'm totally lying because I want to be an asshole." He let out a low chuckle as Crona's face fell. "Come on, I'm joking. Of course we would be. I mean, you'd have to sleep on the couch, but it's better than-"

"I… I wouldn't get in trouble for not staying at the school all the time?"

Soul stopped and frowned. He hadn't thought of that.

"You wouldn't be able to stay over there too often," a voice said from behind Soul, and both boys nearly jumped out of their skin as Stein appeared over Soul's shoulder, "but I don't see Shinigami-sama having an issue with you occasionally staying over with Maka and Soul. It's not like you can get up to very much trouble with them around."

"Jesus _Christ,_ Screwhead! Way to give me a heart attack!" Soul gasped, backing away and clutching at his heart. "Shouldn't you be teaching class or something?"

"I got called out to deal with a situation. Apparently Black Star incapacitated an entire classroom full of students." Stein gave Soul a stern glare over his eerily gleaming glasses. "Great job avoiding a scene, by the way."

Soul scowled. "It's not my fault that some random guy had to take a piss and was too nosy for his own good."

"You do realize that there are paths to the lower levels that do not require you to pass by classrooms full of people, yes?"

"…Oh."

"'Oh' indeed, Soul. But no matter, none of the students suffered fatal injuries and you did, at the very least, get Crona to his room in one piece." Stein turned his gaze onto the swordsman, still curled up on the bed. "Which reminds me, are the pills I gave to you working fine?"

Soul had no idea what Stein was talking about, but Crona gave the Professor a nod and a small smile. "Yes sir. Thank you."

"Good. That's good to hear." Stein stepped into the room and out of the doorway, as if making room for another person. "Well, since Soul and Black Star managed to cause an uproar and announce your presence to the entire school there's really nothing we can do to make the situation much worse, so I decided to let someone out of class temporarily to pay you a visit. She's been anxious to see you all day."

The moment the words left his lips a figure dashed through the doorway, and a second later the swordsman found himself wrapped up in one of the tightest hugs he had ever received.

"Crona!" Maka pulled back slightly to give him a wide grin, her happiness coming off of her in waves. "I'm so glad you're back!"

Crona blinked and threw a quick glance at Soul. There was conflict in his eyes, a mixture of guilt and uncertainty as if he wasn't sure what the best way to react to her affection was. Soul cocked an eyebrow and gave him a look that said "just hug her back already, you idiot."

Slowly, Crona's arms rose up to embrace the girl in front of him, and his head drooped forward to rest against her shoulder.

"Yeah… I'm back."

xXx

For Crona, the next few weeks were nothing short of a living hell.

Well, not _everything _was hell-like. The constant support of Maka, Soul, and their crazy friends helped him get through each day, and to his surprise there were a few other people in his class besides them that didn't hate his guts the moment they laid eyes on him. Within the first week he was approached by Kim, a girl whose existence had never even registered in his mind before now.

"Hi!" She greeted him confidently, ignoring the stares of the people around them. "I'm Kim Diehl, nice to meet you!" She looked around and leaned forward, adding in a whisper, "Listen, I know what it feels like to be in your position. It sucks, but don't worry, my stupid boyfriend and I have your back."

Crona decided that he liked Kim.

However, for every person that showed him kindness there were ten more that went out of their way to do the exact opposite. Crona felt like he couldn't even breathe without receiving a hateful glare from someone in his vicinity, and he had received quite a few anonymous notes that went into loving detail about what exactly they thought of him and his mother and the various ways that he should gruesomely be murdered and/or kill himself. One person had even included a drawing with their note, which Black Star told him he should get framed and put up on his wall.

Crona could deal with these things. Sure, the letters made him sad, although he sometimes found himself thinking that some of the methods of torture they had planned out for him completely lacked creativity, but he was ready to deal with it. He could brush off the nasty looks and the cold shoulders he was given, or at least he could pretend to. _I've been through worse, _became a daily mantra for him. _No matter what, I've been through worse._

At the very least, he had yet to be approached by someone with the intent of inflicting physical harm, though that might have had more to do with the presence of three of the school's most powerful men constantly hovering around him than anything else.

As time continued to drag on, though, this protection became stifling. It wasn't that Crona didn't appreciate everything his friends were doing for him, the exact opposite was the truth, but his natural instinct was to be in isolation. He wanted to get away, if just for a few minutes, from the pity and the worry that made him feel sick to his stomach with guilt. Just the constant presence of large amounts of people was driving him crazy. The time alone he had in his cell every night wasn't nearly enough- he had yet to take Soul up on his offer and stay over at the apartment he shared with Maka, mostly because he didn't want to continue to burden the two after an entire day of watching over him, but also because if he didn't have those brief moments of solitude he was afraid he would lose his mind.

All he wanted was one day, just one measly day to be completely alone, without friends constantly by his side or the hatred of his peers coming at him everywhere he went.

And so he devised the brilliant plan to skip class.

xXx

"Crona!" Maka's fist rapped the cell door for a third time, but there was still no response. She bit down on her lip, worry beginning to gnaw at her.

"Maybe he's still asleep," Soul suggested, and Maka threw him a scornful look.

"Not all guys are heavy sleepers like you, Soul. Crona's _always_ up by this time." She knocked on the door again, louder than before. "Crona! Can you hear me? What's going on in there?"

After receiving the same response as before (i.e., none), Soul sighed and stepped forward. "Why don't we just go in and check on him? The door's probably unlocked."

"No way! I'm not going to go in and invade his privacy! What if he's changing or something?"

"Fine, _I'll_ go in then," Soul said, rolling his eyes, and he tested the door handle. Sure enough it was unlocked, and ignoring Maka's scolding he swung the door open and strolled inside.

"Hey, Crona! Time for class! Maka's head is about to explode so you should-" Soul stopped dead and took a look around the room. There wasn't a soul in sight.

"Huh… that's weird." He looked over at the bed, which had been neatly made, and saw a folded note resting on the pillow. He reached over and picked it up, quickly scanning its contents.

"_I'm sorry, but I can't deal with being around so many people today. It's just too much for me right now. I'm going somewhere where I can be by myself. I'm not running away again, I promise. I'll be back later today. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine._

_-Crona"_

"Uh… Maka… I think we have a problem…"

xXx

A sudden cool breeze caught Crona's hood, slightly pushing back the fabric and exposing the entirety of Crona's face to the refreshing air. The boy took in a deep breath and let it out in a contented sigh, his body finally beginning to relax after so long of being tensed up in anxiety. He was sitting on the edge of one of the many balconies of the school, enjoying the breathtaking view of the school grounds and the surrounding city and, most of all, enjoying the complete absence of people. He'd picked one of the balconies furthest away from the classrooms and had hoped that no one was planning on passing by his location any time soon, and so far his luck seemed to be holding out.

Sure, he probably could have picked a more private place to sit in solitude, but he'd always loved going to the balconies since he had been taken to one by Maka and Miss Marie so long ago. It was a nice change to feel the warmth of the sun and the cool softness of the wind against his skin. He felt guilty about leaving without saying anything to Maka or Soul; even though he'd left a note to let everyone know he was alright he still imagined that Maka was worried sick because of him, and he hadn't even thought about the trouble he could get in for running off without a word of warning… but he really needed this. At that moment he felt as close to free as he could possibly be in his current situation, and he wanted to savor the feeling as long as he could.

Later, thinking back on it, Crona realized just how stupid he had been. He should have known that something would go horribly wrong, because with him something _always_ went wrong. He was the absolute personification of Murphy's Law. But at that moment he was happily oblivious to any problems coming his way, until the footsteps of those problems could be heard right behind him.

"Well, lookit what we have here! We were hopin' we'd come across you!"

Crona immediately stiffened. He brought a hand up to pull the hood of his sweatshirt back over his head, although he knew it was pointless.

"You're actually _alone, _Demon Sword?" the boy who had spoken before scoffed while his companion snickered gleefully. Crona didn't dare look over his shoulder at his unwelcome company, but as far as he could tell there were only two of them. "Not hiding behind Maka or her death scythe and Shinigami buddies anymore, huh?"

Crona made no response. No one had laid a hand on him yet. Maybe if he just took their insults in silence they would grow bored and leave him alone.

"Man, you asked him a question and he ain't answerin'."

"Yeah, I know. He's being rather rude to us and we ain't doin' no harm."

"Huh, maybe we should."

"Yeah, maybe we _should._"

As Crona listened to their horribly stereotypical tough-guy dialogue he felt a chill run down his spine. No, they wouldn't touch him. He hadn't done anything or said anything. They wouldn't want to cause a scene while they were at school. They wouldn't-

A hand roughly grabbed his shoulder and forced him to face his assailants, twisting his upper body around at an uncomfortable angle. Crona kept his eyes glued to the floor, afraid that even meeting the gaze of either boy would provoke them further.

"Man, now he ain't even looking at us! What, you think you're better than us or somethin'? You fucking dirty son of a witch?"

Crona shook his head wildly, but that only seemed to amuse them. He could practically feel their scorn and loathing prickling against his skin, and his mind began to fill with fear. His trembling hands clenched in his lap, his nails digging painfully into his palms.

"I-I-I…" Crona attempted to swallow but his throat had gone dry. He tried to speak again with less of a pathetic quaver in his voice. "I d-don't want to fight… P-please leave me alone…"

"Oh, really?" The boy with the grip on his shoulder reached out with his free hand to grab the other one, and in one swift movement Crona was pulled off his perch and slammed against the floor. "I'm willing to bet that death scythe you killed didn't wanna fight either, and neither did that city you attacked, you piece of shit."

The boy was practically on top of him, pinning him to the ground, and Crona had no place to look other than his eyes. All traces of the bully's former amusement were gone, and the only thing that remained was the desire to cause his victim pain. It scared him to death.

"I-I didn't want to." Crona's voice broke as he looked at the boy hovering over him pleadingly. "I don't want to hurt anybody. Please, leave me alone."

Crona didn't know if he was truly hoping for any pity from the boy, but the snarl that formed on his face at Crona's words confirmed that he would be receiving none. He felt the grip on one of his shoulders disappear as his attacker pulled back his hand and formed a fist.

"Is that so?" he hissed. "That's too bad, because I _really_ want to do _this._"

The black blood in his body could harden and prevent bruising, fractured bones, and other unfortunate side effects that could possibly occur when being punched in the face. It didn't make it hurt any less.

xXx

Soul skidded to a halt and dropped his hands to his knees, taking a short break to fill his lungs with much needed oxygen. Maka had sensed Crona's soul wavelength somewhere at this end of the school, but since Soul was the more athletic of the two she had sent him off after him while she went to inform Stein and the other teachers of the situation. Which, Soul realized after about fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, had been the dumbest decision ever.

"God damn it!" he swore to the empty hallway. Why the hell did Crona have to do something so _stupid?_ He wished that Maka could have at least taken the extra time to pinpoint Crona's exact location; it could have saved him a whole lot of pointless running. After all it wasn't like _he_ had any kind of soul percep-

Soul stopped mid-mental complaint and looked down thoughtfully at his chest. _Hmm._ Crona had been the one that had transferred the bit of black blood in his body to him, right? Didn't that mean they had some kind of connection? Maybe, if he cleared his mind and focused on a disturbance similar to the one that resided within himself, he could locate Crona through some kind of tripped-out Black Blood Connection. At any rate, he didn't have any better ideas.

Soul closed his eyes, concentrated, and stood in silence for a full minute.

…Nothing.

"Damn it!" he swore again, and once more took off running down the hallway.

xXx

_I've been through worse._

Knuckles once again connected with Crona's cheek, and the metallic tang of blood filled his mouth as his teeth scratched against the inside of his cheek. He didn't dare spit it out; he didn't want it to harden or spike out or do anything that would give his attackers any further reason to harm him. Stein's medicine should have given him control over those particular effects of his blood, but he didn't want to take any chances.

_This is nothing. I've been through worse._

The second boy's foot became wedged in his stomach, driving the breath from his body. Inside his head he could hear Ragnarok screaming at him, calling him insane, demanding that he be let out of Crona's body or for his meister to at least do something to protect them both, but Crona pushed his voice to the back of his mind. He wouldn't fight back. He wouldn't hurt anyone else, and he wouldn't succumb to madness.

_If anything, I deserve this._

"Why the hell aren't you fighting back?" The boy hovering over him grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into a sitting position, not seeming to care that the task of breathing was suddenly made difficult for the swordsman. "Do you _like_ being hurt by us, you sick fuck?"

Crona pulled feebly at the hands encircling his neck and shook his head. "No… Don't want to hurt… L-let me go… Can't breathe…"

"Good!" The boy abruptly shoved him down again, cracking his head against the stone of the floor. Crona grit his teeth as pain stabbed through his skull, and he vaguely felt something warm and damp begin to spread over the back of his head. "A monster like you shouldn't be breathing in the first place! I dunno what Shinigami-sama was thinkin', deciding to not have you killed."

Crona's struggles faltered momentarily. He forced himself to look into his attacker's hate-filled eyes and took as deep of a breath as he could manage while being partially strangled. "I'm… not… a monster."

The boy blinked, surprised that Crona was finally deciding to defend himself, but he brushed it off with a peal of cruel laughter. "Really? Says who?"

"My… _friend._"

An incredulous smile spread across his attacker's face. "Did ya hear that?" he asked, turning to his friend. "Someone told this guy he wasn't a monster! They must be the biggest idiot in this whole city!"

"Actually… that title would have to go to Black Star."

The entire scene seemed to freeze at the sound of the familiar bored drawl. Both attackers whipped their heads around toward the source of the voice; Crona's view was blocked by the body of the boy hovering over him, but it wasn't hard to guess the identity of the boy that had interrupted his beating.

"What the hell do you want, huh?" The boy quickly released his grip on Crona's neck as he shouted at the intruder and the swordsman took the opportunity to gasp for air. "This has nothing to do with you, so get outta here before you start something you'll regret!"

"Actually, this _does_ have something to do with me." A set of footsteps came forward, and before either of the attackers could react the boy on top of Crona was roughly pulled to his feet. The second boy started forward angrily, but found himself facing the pointed end of a large, menacing blade. Crona pushed himself up and scooted away to a safer distance, one hand clutching the back of his head, and finally got a good look at the boy who had come to his rescue.

Soul had the boy who had first punched him gripped by the collar of his shirt and was holding the other boy at bay with his free arm, which had turned into a scythe. His posture was relaxed, as if this kind of situation was nothing out of the ordinary and almost bored him, but the expression on his face said otherwise. Crona had never seen Soul become truly angry about anything before, but the look he directed at the boy in his grasp was one filled with nothing short of pure loathing.

"You see, I don't like starting fights, not unless I have to… However, I'm not just gonna stand by and let two nobodies like you two hurt one of my friends." Soul bared his teeth at the bully, and the color noticeably drained from his face. "Cool guys like me look after the people they care about, and if you start something with one of them then you're starting something with me. And I can tell you right now, I'm not nice like Crona. I won't hesitate to kick both of your asses into next week, and trust me, that's not something I would ever regret doing."

"Whoa, hey man, chill out!" The boy being threatened by Soul's scythe-arm gave a nervous laugh and held up his hands in surrender; the other boy seemed to be petrified and had his eyes fixed on Soul's sharp canines. "You don't need to threaten us like that! We'll leave him alone, okay? We won't bother him again, just let us go and we'll get outta here."

Soul looked over his shoulder to fix his hateful glare on the boy who spoke, who immediately seemed to wilt where he stood. The death scythe let out a snort of disgust and his arm slowly morphed back into its normal appearance. "Fine," he spat, shoving the other boy away from him. "Get the hell out of my face."

The bullies exchanged looks, their relief at escaping punishment openly written on their faces, and turned around to make a run for it. The main attacker made it about two steps before Soul's foot connected with his ass.

"Ow! _Fuck!_" The force of the kick caused the boy to stumble, but he managed to stay on his feet and hurriedly took off after his friend, who had run on ahead to avoid meeting the same fate. Soul threw them one last glare and turned away, apparently satisfied at getting one good hit in on them, and instead made his way over to Crona. He crouched down beside him and gave him an intensive look-over, which made Crona feel rather uncomfortable. He averted his eyes and hoped that he wasn't blushing or tearing up or doing anything else equally embarrassing.

"Did they hurt you?" Soul asked, which almost made Crona laugh. Wasn't the answer to that obvious? He didn't want to look like a weakling, however, so he shook his head.

"Tch. Liar." Soul took Crona's face in his hands and tilted his head downward, getting a better look at whatever wound he had sustained on the back of his head. "Jeez, that looks bad. You should go to the nurse…"

"No!" Crona batted Soul's hands away and tugged his hood over his head to hide whatever horrors he imagined Soul had seen upon it. "I-it's just a scratch, the teachers don't need to know about this-"

"Don't be stupid, Crona, you pretty much gave Maka a heart attack with that note of yours, all of the teachers already know that you-"

"They don't need to know what happened! Please, I don't want to-"

"Can't you just-"

"No!"

Soul let out an exasperated groan and threw up his hands in defeat. "Fine, whatever! We'll just stay here until Maka and Stein find us and send you off to the infirmary anyway. Happy?"

Crona frowned unhappily but nodded anyway, bringing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them tightly. Soul sighed and sat flat on the ground beside him, his arms folded across his chest. There was a silence between them that lasted much too long, during which Soul stared in any direction that didn't contain Crona and Crona stared at his shoes while occasionally throwing sidelong glances at the boy beside him. He knew he should thank him for saving him; the words were right on the tip of his tongue, ready to be spoken, but something was keeping his mouth shut. He couldn't put his finger on it exactly, but something about Soul made him… _nervous,_ for lack of a better word. Not that he wasn't nervous around practically everyone else, but he felt that this particular feeling was a different kind of nervous altogether. It was the kind of nervous that caused him to choke and stutter when he wanted to speak, the kind that caused him to put a small distance between them whenever they were in the same general area and avoid his gaze, but at the same time constantly sent his eyes in his direction whenever he was sure the death scythe wasn't looking. This nervousness had been present since the hospital visit about a month ago, and had steadily grown to the point that it became difficult for him to ignore.

He didn't know what it meant, but he didn't like it at all.

"…I'm sorry."

Crona snapped out of his reverie and turned to look at Soul. "W-what?"

"I said I'm sorry." Soul narrowed his eyes at whatever had the misfortune of being in his sight. "I promised that nothing bad would happen to you and that obviously didn't work out. I screwed up. I tried to get here as fast as I could…"

"What? No!" Soul jumped as Crona sat up straight with a panic-stricken expression on his face. "It wasn't your fault! You didn't know that I was going to run off or- or get beat up by those guys, please don't blame yourself…"

Soul stayed silent for a second, and then finally turned his gaze onto Crona. The corners of his mouth lifted into his signature smirk. "I'm not saying it wasn't your fault. This is _definitely_ your fault. But I was supposed to look after you and keep you safe, and I'm not exactly doing a good job."

"You still saved me," Crona pointed out softly, his fingers absentmindedly pulling at the sleeves of his sweatshirt.

"Yeah… I guess so. I'm pretty good at that, the whole 'saving people' thing."

Crona smiled at the tinge of smugness in Soul's voice but otherwise made no comment. They were back to sitting in silence. Crona realized that all of their one-on-one encounters seemed to follow the same script: awkward silence, uncomfortable situation, friendly resolution, awkward silence again, and repeat…

"Hey… why weren't you fighting back?" Soul was looking at him with genuine curiosity, his smirk dropping back down into a frown. "I know you're tougher than those guys, you could have fought them off easy if you tried."

Crona blanched at the thought of fighting his two attackers. True, he could have defended himself… He could have used the blood from his head wound to spear them where they stood, or summoned Ragnarok and used him to cut them to shreds and paint the balcony crimson-

He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head. "I-I don't think that would have been a good idea… I don't want to hurt anyone else…"

Crona kept his eyes closed, so any physical reaction Soul may have had to his statement went unseen, but the sudden touch Crona felt on his shoulder was impossible to ignore. Soul's grip was tight, but as unlike the grip that his attacker had on him as it could possibly be. It was warm and reassuring, and for some strange reason seemed to be sending a warm, prickling heat throughout his entire body. Crona's eyelids drifted open as he observed the hand on his shoulder, and suddenly his heart jumped into his throat.

He knew this feeling. It hadn't been very long since the last time he had felt something like it… but no, that time it had made sense. This didn't make sense at all. It was wrong and it was unfair because Maka was nice and friendly and Soul was so aloof and out of reach and cool and so in love with someone else.

_I can't. I can't like him. I don't want to like him. I just want to be his friend, that's all, nothing else. He's a guy, he loves Maka, so I can't like him like that. I just can't!_

Shocked tears stung at the corners of his eyes, and he desperately hoped that Soul just thought they were simply because of the emotional strain of being tormented and beaten. Almost against his will his fingertips moved up to brush against the hand that rested on his shoulder, and his increasing heartbeat seemed to beat a single message against his chest and into his mind.

"_Oh yes you can."_

_AN: It's not super important, but I'm going off to College Land on the 21st and updates will probably be even slower than usual. My social life and my studies come first, but this story will remain a priority for me because it's going to be finished whether it wants to be or not, dammit. This chapter was a nightmare but the next few should be relatively easy to write out (I hope). I'd also like to take a moment to thank the people who have reviewed and favorited this story so far, it really brightens my day. _

_PS. Justin Law, get off the moon, you look ridiculous up there. _


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